{"id":69189,"date":"2025-08-15T02:55:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T02:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/69189\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T02:55:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T02:55:10","slug":"are-your-superannuation-contributions-as-high-as-other-australian-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/69189\/","title":{"rendered":"Are your superannuation contributions as high as other Australian workers?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

About 1.65 million Australians made personal superannuation<\/a> contributions to APRA-regulated funds in FY23. <\/p>\n

Newly published tax data shows Australians averaged $23,818 in personal super contributions in FY23, up from $19,614 in FY22. <\/p>\n

The median amount contributed was $3,879 per person, up from $3,600 in FY22. <\/p>\n

How do your personal superannuation contributions stack up against these benchmarks? <\/p>\n

A recap on the rules for personal superannuation contributions <\/p>\n

Personal contributions can be concessional (you claim a tax deduction) or non-concessional (no deduction).<\/p>\n

There are caps in place to limit how much money you can put into your superannuation each year. <\/p>\n

In FY23, the cap on concessional personal super contributions was $27,500. It’s since been lifted to $30,000 per year<\/a> for FY25 and FY26. <\/p>\n

In FY23, the cap for non-concessional contributions was $110,000. The cap is now $120,000 per year<\/a> for FY25 and FY26. <\/p>\n

Why put spare money into super? <\/p>\n

Many Australians are motivated to put extra money into superannuation to maximise the power of compounding<\/a> over time. <\/p>\n

But there’s another big benefit.<\/p>\n

That’s the huge tax saving you’ll score on those concessional personal superannuation contributions. <\/p>\n

Concessional contributions up to the cap of $30,000 are taxed at just 15%. <\/p>\n

This is substantially lower than most workers’ marginal tax rates. <\/p>\n

The concessional contributions cap applies to the combined total amount of the\u00a0Superannuation Guarantee<\/a> that your employer pays, which is now 12% of your wage<\/a>, any\u00a0salary sacrificing<\/a>\u00a0you have arranged, and any personal contributions you claim as a tax deduction.<\/p>\n

How concessional personal super contributions save you tax <\/p>\n

As stated earlier, concessional personal superannuation contributions are taxed at 15%. <\/p>\n

Say you make $10,000 worth of concessional personal superannuation contributions in FY26.<\/p>\n

Your super fund will automatically tax that amount at 15%, which equals $1,500. <\/p>\n

The superannuation fund will then invest the $8,500 that’s left from your $10,000 contribution. <\/p>\n

Then, when you complete your tax return, you’ll need to declare the $10,000 concessional contribution.<\/p>\n

What that will do is effectively reduce your taxable income by $10,000.<\/p>\n

If you’re on a marginal tax rate of 30 cents in the dollar (i.e. earning between $45,001 and $135,000), this means you’ll save $3,000 in tax. <\/p>\n

If you’re on a marginal rate of 37 cents (i.e. earning between $135,001 and $190,000), you’ll save $3,700 in tax. <\/p>\n

Now remember, your superannuation fund paid $1,500 in tax on your behalf, with the money taken from your $10,000 contribution. <\/p>\n

The tax savings you received at tax time were double that or greater, at $3,000 or $3,700 in our examples above. <\/p>\n

Winning!<\/p>\n

One caveat, though: If your income plus concessional contributions exceeds $250,000 in a year, an extra 15% Division 293 tax may apply to some or all of your concessional contributions.<\/p>\n

Remember to fill in the form! <\/p>\n

If you make a concessional personal superannuation contribution, you’ll need to lodge a form with your fund and receive written acknowledgement before doing your tax return (and before rolling over or withdrawing any funds).<\/p>\n

It’s called the ‘Notice of intent to claim or vary a deduction for personal super contributions<\/a>‘ form. <\/p>\n

This form tells your super fund that you intend to claim a tax deduction for your personal contribution. <\/p>\n

Once your fund acknowledges the notice in writing, your contribution will be treated as a concessional (before-tax) contribution.<\/p>\n

How much super do you need for retirement? <\/p>\n

According to the Retirement Standard<\/a>, couples need $690,000 and singles need $595,000 in super for a ‘comfortable’ retirement<\/a>. <\/p>\n

For a ‘modest’ retirement, couples and singles need $100,000 in superannuation savings. <\/p>\n

You can learn more about the definitions of a ‘comfortable’ and ‘modest’ retirement here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These figures assume debt-free home ownership, a part-pension, and 6% total annual returns on superannuation savings.<\/p>\n

Find out how much super you should have at your age now<\/a> to ensure you’re on track for a comfortable retirement<\/a> later in life.<\/p>\n

What does retirement cost? <\/p>\n

For homeowners, a comfortable\u00a0retirement\u00a0costs $73,875 per annum for couples and $52,383 for singles.<\/p>\n

A modest retirement costs $48,184 for couples and $33,386 for singles.<\/p>\n

Retirees who rent their homes need more superannuation savings to fund a modest retirement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The full age pension<\/a>, including all supplements, is currently\u00a0$45,037.20 per year for couples and $29,874 for singles.<\/p>\n

You can view the latest changes to the pension assets and income tests here<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About 1.65 million Australians made personal superannuation contributions to APRA-regulated funds in FY23. Newly published tax data shows…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[64,63,99,6166,186,184,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-69189","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-editors-choice","12":"tag-finance","13":"tag-personal-finance","14":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}